the harry truman congress called the do nothing congress passed 906. so they're extraordinarily productive compared to what we have now. >> reporter: yeah. >> talking about why in "the washington post" a couple of months and said never have we seen them this dysfunctional and criticize both parties and now acknowledge the core of the problem lies with the republican party. what do you think is going on with this truly do nothing congress? >> reporter: well, toure, one is tempted to be flip and say there's post offices that needing naming in the '50s and inflated the numbers and really essentially looking at the numbers the vast majority of those bills, the vast preponderance of those bills is sort of inconsequential bills. they have a special day reserved for post office namings and singing the praises of this day or that day or motherhood or apple pie and so, you know, it's sort of really hard to tell and it's fairly strong indication as if we needed that number to indication of how dysfunctional this congress is. here's somebody, a speaker in the bac